Not my weekend!

I guess it's just not my weekend for welding! I woke with another fever and struggled to walk 3 loads of lightweight things 100 yards from one trailer to another. That exhausted me!

After a suitable rest to recover, and having completed my electrics yesterday, I fancied a spot of welding. Thus I cleared a spot outside of leaves and laid two pieces of steel tubing ready to do some practice welding.

Then I unpacked the welding box. I'd expected perhaps some gloves and a mask of some sort. Nothing of the kind! There was a paltry instruction manual that didn't explain what one of the strangely shaped pieces of plastic included was for. Nor did it explain the lower of the high-low settings on the welder.

Included was an eye protector for somebody with a single eye - perhaps some kind of cyclops? It certainly wasn't in any way adequate for anything I could envisage!

So, it looks like another trip to the store for proper protective equipment. I'm estimating probably another $100 there. By the time I can use the welder I'm estimating I'll have spent $250. It's almost looking cheaper to have paid somebody else to do the damn welding! Of course there would have been little to no satisfaction in that.

Still, I'm in this now so I have to finish. I'm going to have to teach myself welding. That might be a very useful skill to have!

Meanwhile, my eBay multimeter is giving strange readings. Yesterday it was giving me strange resistance readings on unconnected wires. Today it couldn't make its mind up whether my 12v solar panel was giving me 0.00v or 16.5v. It's really all rather frustrating.

Speaking of eBay, I had a communication from the seller of the heatsinks ordered from China: Thanks for your waiting, Please don't worry, everything will be fine.

This is confirm that we shipped out your item immediately on Nov 8th. As it is economy shipping way, free shipping, so there is no tracking number. The number: 33343918782 that you received is just a package bar code for us record, it cannot be tracked to be frank, but our shipping agent can locate the package position by using their interior tracking system, we can offer tracking number for each item price over $32 only , hopefully get your understanding,

According to our shipping experience, it normally takes 25 to 30 working days to arrive (weekends are not included, about 35 days).Sincerely hope you could wait for it another 2 weeks. Your understanding and patience will be highly appreciated. It should arrive soon.

if you have any issues, please let me know, i will be always here at your service.

Thanks for your waiting and have a nice day.
Regards,
Anne. Clearly the seller's name is not Anne as their English is too poor. They're also talking nonsense because just about every other seller provides a functioning tracking number. It's also inconceivable that the heatsinks take longer to arrive than the 10 days everything else takes. I smell fish!

All I want to do is to work on my bus! Is that too much to ask?

I braved the Black Friday hoard!

Well, not really. I didn't leave the house until 4pm. By the time I arrived at Lowe's (hiss, spit), the car parks were pretty clear and the roads about as busy or quiet as normal. It was pretty mundane in actual fact.

In Lowe's I found the Nema TT 30R that I was looking for. I looked for an adaptor to turn it into a standard household socket but they didn't have one. I would have left it at that but I spied a stand with 60W equivalent LED bulbs for 99 cents each. As bulbs are dying in m'lady's bathroom, I added four and then a flashing LED necklace to spice things up a bit at work over Christmas. I got out for $16.

Next stop was Walmart where I got the Nema 30TTR to Nema 5-15 adaptor and a can on black spray paint they had for 96 cents. I got out of Walmart for about $8.

Returning home, the mail still has not brought my cooling vanes for my Peltier cooler. This looks a bit suspicious! I ordered it on November 8th and the seller provided a tracking number that doesn't state the vanes actually arrived at the carrier. I'm suspecting they're hoping I won't notice they haven't supplied the product.

Tomorrow I hope to complete the wiring for my RV power socket. The adaptor I bought says "don't use for more than 15A" yet looks to be solid brass connectors. I'm putting 20A through it and will just watch to see what happens. I suspect they labelled it conservatively. Worst case scenario, it melts and catches fire. Not a big deal, where its located.

Maybe Sunday I can do some welding!

As far as the heatsink is concerned, I suspect I'll have to buy another elsewhere and try to get a refund off eBay!

An interesting day!

The primary goal of heading out today was to get my car serviced, which happened this week. Now I don't have to worry about it all. Sure, they were on about rotating tyres and the age of my battery and radiator flushes. My tyres rotate quite well as I drive down the road and anything else gets done when needed. In other words, the battery gets replaced when it stops starting right away.

Speaking of batteries, two of my purchases arrived today. The first was a 5A solar panel and the second was my enamelled copper wire. I'd have got on with making electro magnets had I not completely forgotten to purchase appropriate bolts.

With this wire, I should be able to make far better electro magnets than the Chinese supplied and make sure they work with my setup! I could have saved a lot of time by doing this from the start.

The solar panel is 12v, 5A and is intended for use as a battery keeper. A quick test using a 12v panel lamp proved the panel works well even out of direct light. Note that the panel is sitting on a shaded step on the bus with the lamp connected. The plan is to put a cigarette lighter socket plug on it, put the panel on the dashboard where sun will shine on it and to plug it into the electrical system. That should slowly trickle charge the battery and ensure it doesn't go flat.

Another thing I got was a 70A welder. Looking at the reviews, it seems most of the complaints come from people that can't read. Looking on the sides of the welding rod boxes, amp ranges are specified. A rod for 25-45A will work well as long as the power is turned down. A rod for 45-90A will work well. A rod for 90-135A will not work. I was pretty careful to read what it said on the boxes!

Now the next issue is the welder needs a 20A power supply. That doesn't exist right now. It will have to be installed on a separate pole outside. Fortunately I have a suitable box. The first task though was to hack my way through a jungle to get to the box.

Having reached the pole, I investigated the box. It's going to be "interesting" wiring it up with a potential 200A running through it all. Fortunately there are spaces where breakers have been removed and there's a hole in the bottom of the box. There's plenty conduit taken from the hillbilly installation that can be used.

As the conduit is a bit of a funky shape, there will need to be a separate pole for the new outlet. Clearly I'd have to buy more electric cable. It's all doable though it might be next weekend before I get started. Right now I have several projects all needing extra parts or preparation work. It's a little frustrating!

To add to the frustration, my multimeter has indeed died. It seems the needle is sticking. I have no idea why as it has been stored dry, never abused and not used a great deal! It worked a few months ago. Clearly I need to replace it as its now unreliable even if I did get it to work again.

It's probably had a reasonable innings since I bought it about a decade ago. I remember buying an inexpensive meter. EBay came up trumps. $4.99 got me a replacement with a digital display, shipped from Texas. I'm not in a great hurry for it so I can afford to wait a week. There's plenty else I can do without a meter.

My latest plan is to continue on with eliminating the handbasin in the bathroom, turning the vanity top into a straight countertop. That makes far more sense to me. I can use the counter for a gas cooker or for a plastic bowl to do my washing etc.

Well well well

Looking at that bargain socket I had on eBay, it turns out that perhaps it wasn't quite the bargain I'd thought or maybe it was... Allow me to explain.

It transpired that the 4 pole plus an earth connector is not a Nema standard socket. That's bad because each time I need a plug its going to be a special order. It's good because nobody is likely to want to steal something with a non standard connector.

The standard socket is $80. I paid $20. The standard plug I have no idea of the cost of. The plug for my non standard connector is about $25. Even if I have to carry a spare, I'm still under the cost of just a socket for the standard plug!

Thinking around corners, I realised that if I installed a 15A male socket then I'd be able to use light cables as well. Following that thought yet further, I don't really need to use the socket I bought. Here's why...

15 amp cable, 50 feet long is about $40 at Lowe's. A 30 amp cable, 50 feet long is $150. Two 15 amp cables in parallel is much cheaper to use and less desirable to thieves. 50 amp cord, 50 feet long is $300. That's all getting a bit ridiculous!

Clearly I've been barking up the wrong tree with the idea of a 30A cable. Indeed, looking at the costs it makes solar look more affordable! It needs a slight redesign. Even buying the wire as wire then adding the plugs has no significant price advantage.

I know I'm definitely on the right track not using 50A cable. That stuff is about $3 a foot. Even 30A cable is about $2 a foot and that's off eBay! Strangely, ready made cables seem cheaper than putting my own together.